THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD AND THE RIGHT HAND OF MEN

^[p. 235] THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD AND THE RIGHT HAND OF MEN

Revelation 1: 17 - 20; Revelation 5: 1; Revelation 10: 5 - 7; Revelation 13: 16

These scriptures, as you will observe, dear brethren, speak about the divine right hand; whether it be the right hand of Christ or the right hand of God; and in the last scripture it is the right hand of men in all grades of society, that is, small and great, rich and poor, free and bondmen: “that they should give them a mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead”. That is the mark of the beast.

I wish to speak of these scriptures almost entirely from the standpoint of the divine right hand as it is seen in this book of Revelation, a book which has a peculiar application to our times. The things contained therein are about to be fulfilled, and consequently there is need of knowing what the right hand of God or of Christ implies. It is God’s best in the way of strength in service to us; that is what the right hand manifestly conveys, and it is very touching that it is so prominent in this book. It is indeed a mark of the whole dispensation in which we are, for it is the period of Christ’s session at the right hand of God; meaning that He is in the place of divine strength: that is, all the power that wrought in Christ when God raised Him from the dead, “the surpassing greatness of his power” (Ephesians 1: 19), is available here on earth, and not only that, but is working, as it is said, “the power which works in us”,

Ephesians 3: 20. It is not that ‘which should work’, but “which works in us”. God operates for us according to our prayers, but He operates “far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us”. That is what marks the whole dispensation and the Lord would ^[p. 236] give us to understand that it holds in remnant times, that it holds notwithstanding that the public profession has failed. For God has not failed, and His right hand is available to all who are ready to avail themselves of it. That is His very best; there is no fag-end with Him or with His people. No one who loves God and Christ would think of giving only the fag-end of their life to Him. As we love God and Christ we give the whole of our lives to Him, and that means that we give our right hand. The beast would take charge of our right hands according to the last scripture that I read, but those who love God and Christ say, ‘Our right hands are for God, and not for men’. And God says, ‘My right hand is for you too’. And so John, who is the representative Christian or believer in this book, is called a bondman.

The book, I may suggest, at the outset, dear brethren, involves a certain distance. It is not a book of nearness, such as the epistles to the Ephesians, the Colossians and the Thessalonians. These epistles suggest nearness, the nearness of the saints to God, and indeed union with Christ; union is not only nearness, but organic oneness with Christ. That is what the epistle to the Ephesians contemplates.

This book, however, is a book of graded distance; that is, God gave the revelation to Christ, and Christ signified it by His angel to His bondman John, who testified the word of God. So it is God, Christ, Christ’s angel and John, and then the book is written to the seven assemblies, meaning the whole professing body.

Now, John tells us that he was the brother of the saints and their companion in tribulation. That is the kind of thing that you get with all true servants, the bondmen of God or Christ; they are sufferers.

Our idea of leadership is often mistaken. We assume that the term applies to the brother or brothers who take part in the reading or in ministry. But, in truth, the idea is that the leader goes before according ^[p. 237] to the pattern of Christ, and in doing so, he suffers. There is a very beautiful touch in Numbers 10: the ark was to be carried in a dignified way on the shoulders of the Kohathites, following on Reuben, Simeon and Gad, and followed up by Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin. But then instead of that, the ark goes forward before all the tribes and it is to seek out a resting place, that is, to bear the brunt of the opposition. Whatever the opposition may be, the ark confronts it. That is how our Lord Jesus Christ led. We are enjoined to obey and remember our leaders, but be sure to remember “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever”,

Hebrews 13: 8. He is the great Leader and the way He has led is in suffering. So John here is in suffering, but he is in a true Christian state, and he is in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. He is ready for all that enters into the Lord’s day, so far as it was available for him; he was an isolated prisoner, but he was in keeping with the Lord’s day. The Lord had opened the way to him in regard to His Spirit; no one could close that way; it is always open to God. He had not made a way out of prison at that particular time, but He had made a way for him to God. The Lord’s day implied that there was a way open to him into all that belonged to the first day of the week, the Lord’s day. It was surely that; for the Lord was manifestly in power in regard to God in keeping the way open for him to be with his God. John says he heard a voice behind him, meaning that his face was towards eternity. He was in the Spirit; the Spirit links us on with eternity. The great type that pointed to the day of the Spirit was the feast of Pentecost, there is no time limit to it at all. It looks into eternity and that is what John was enjoying in so far as he could, as having the feast of Pentecost. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and he heard a voice behind him, that is, he was called back from ^[p. 238] that position to see things in relation to the public profession of christianity. Notwithstanding the failure of the public profession, the Lord is saying to John, ‘I am going on; whatever others may be doing, whatever difficulties may arise, I am going on with something; I am going on to finality. In spite of apparently insuperable difficulties, I am going on to the end, and, John, I want you to be with Me in this’. That is how the book stands. John hears a voice behind him, and he turns to see the voice which spake to him. The point is what is being said — the voice. When he turned he saw a wonderful scene “seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle: his head and hair white like white wool, as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire; and his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace”, Revelation 1: 12 - 15. What can stand before all this? Nothing. There He stands, and in His right hand He held seven stars; He had them in His right hand. And when John saw Him he fell at His feet as dead. This leads me to the first point that I wish to stress, namely that the Lord laid His right hand on John. “And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”. That is the hand laid on John, and it is the hand we may look to; without it we can do nothing at all. We shall be as one dead. We may talk and attempt to do things, but we are as one dead, and as such we can do nothing at all really. So the right hand is laid upon John and what this implies to us is love. It is the touch of the right hand of power to infuse life, to stimulate what is stagnant or dead, to make it living. This is the thing that the Lord begins with; He is about to operate according to His mind, and ^[p. 239] He begins with John. He begins with those who love Him, with those who are humble, and those who fear; those who are sensibly without strength in the array of judicial power that is presented in this glorious Person. What can one do? One has to be set up afresh in relation to the judicial power of Christ. His face had been set benignly towards the world. John had been set up with his fellow apostles in that connection. John developed the great thought of love as none other of the twelve did. His epistles testify to the attractiveness of love and its effectiveness in life, for it is he who develops the great thought of love and eternal life. Now he is in the presence not of evangelical power but of judicial power and angelic power, too. The dispensation is not changed yet, but the book of Revelation looks on to another dispensation, beginning in this one and preparing for that one, that is the coming dispensation of judicial power. God is intervening to deal with opposition even in the profession. How are we to be in that? It is no longer apostolic, it is no longer the exercise of divine power and love for the salvation of men; it is a question of the judicial dealings of God with the rebellious profession, that is what is in mind. How am I to be in that? We have to be ready for divine changes of attitude; we have to be ready for this dispensation, for it may burst upon us at any moment.

The tenth chapter shows that the Lord has power when He swears to bring the whole matter to an end. The date is on the calendar and He has power to bring it to an end at the minute. So that looking towards this judicial state of things, how am I to be in it? In whatever movement the Lord is leading, I have to enquire how am I to be in that? Am I equal to this new movement? Am I to be behind, to be a derelict in failing to see what the divine mind is, and to fall in line with it?

John is not in this class. The divine countenance is ^[p. 240] towards us in unfailing love. John loves the Lord and the Lord knows it, and although he falls at His feet as one dead, the Lord says, ‘You are not to be dead, you are to be alive, and you are to write a book’.

Some of us were speaking about the distinction between a chronicler and a scribe. John is not exactly a chronicler, but a scribe; he has a great deal to say about books. When he writes his gospel he says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”, John 21:25. That is what John says. He had a greater idea of books than anyone. I do not suppose any librarian ever had such an idea as a world full of books. Not that John says it would be full of books, but he does imply that a world full of books, written about the things of Christ, would be embodied in Christ. There is enough in Christ to fill a world with books. I do not suppose there was any scribe who knew more about books than John. He was a scribe, and the Lord here had in mind that he was to write; it is not a question of preaching, but of writing. I dwell a little on this because many of our dear sisters and brothers are taking down notes and they sit up at night to copy them, and others revise them and so on, involving very great labour, much more than those who have not to do it realise; the Lord has in mind here that John is to be engaged with that sort of work. That is the particular work he is to be engaged in according to this book. It is not apostolic; it is prophetic; he is a prophet, a bondman of God, but his work particularly is to write. And the Lord says, ‘Now John, if you are to do this work properly, you are to do it in love, you must do it in life, in a living, feeling way’. And that is a word that applies to every bit of service that is to be rendered to the saints of God and to the Lord at the present time;

^[p. 241] it is not to be carried on in a perfunctory way, but in the energy of life; that is the thing, the feelings of life and love. So the Lord laid His right hand upon John, and He says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades. Write therefore what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these”. There is to be one book written under these three heads. The Lord gives him the subjects; He leaves it with him to subdivide the subjects. We have them in twenty-two chapters, but there are three heads, three subjects, “what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these”. These are the three headings and in every one of these headings the Lord implies that you are to instil the thought of life. You are to be in the energy of life, you are to be in the feelings of life, and the love that belongs to it, and I may add in the intelligence of life, for intelligence is a feature of life in man.

Now you can see the effects of all this. We are not all scribes, of course, but it is incumbent on every true lover of Christ to be engaged in the Lord’s service. There is something to be done and the lesson is that it is to be done as we receive the touch of a living Christ, and of a Christ who has the keys of death and of hades. One could say a good deal as to the idea of the power of hades. There are those who pretend to have access to those who have departed through death; it is a manifest fallacy. The Lord is not opening the door of hades for such. He has the keys. Where can one get in and how get out? Is the Lord at the beck and call of any? The whole thing is a lie. I am speaking of that only by the way. He has got the keys of death, too. Later He says He has the key of David. That is, He has power to restrain all evil, to keep it under for the moment, and ^[p. 242] He is doing it. And then He has the power to release good. He opens and no man can shut, and shuts and no man can open. That is the position in this book.

The next thing is that He has something in His right hand. He has seven stars and is holding them in His right hand. This is not a judicial thought, although those concerned are the angels of the seven assemblies. Although they are responsible and the Lord sends to them one after another this position is not judicial. Their position is supremely advantageous, it could not be more advantageous, considering the matter as a question of those of us — and everyone is included — who are responsible at the present time. The term “angel” here has often been commented upon as having place in Scripture. The Lord, for instance, says of children, “their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18: 10); that is, they are represented in heaven, and represented in such a way that they behold the face of the Father. This has to be understood spiritually, and we read of messengers of assemblies, Christ’s glory (2 Corinthians 8: 23), manifestly representatives of the assemblies. These were men carrying the bounty of the saints to where it could be used in love, a wonderful service. The glory of Christ shone out in the assembly, in these ministers carrying money from certain points of the west to Jerusalem to meet in love the need of the saints of God. Such, dear brethren, is the way the Spirit of God presents these services. Here we have seven stars in the right hand of the Lord Jesus, that right hand of power, and, as I said, the position is supremely advantageous. That is to say, for those who love the Lord and who care for His interests, who in the wakeful hours of the night, pray to Him to preserve the faith of His people, mention the meetings, mention the leading brothers, mention the saints. These are ^[p. 243] the ones. Others of them have a like position even though not so prayerful, not so considerate for the Lord, but still they are included in this position in the right hand of Christ. All of us who are responsible to the Lord in a district represent the responsibility of the assembly, and accept it, too — some more and some less; but whether more or less, we are in that position. The Lord gives us to understand that we are in that position, and that we can reckon in that position and in that service, on the unlimited power of God. How great this is as we bring it down to practical cases of care! It has its own place amongst us. It is not work that is very dignified, as perhaps sometimes we have thought. I illustrate this from Luke 10, where the Lord says to the inn-keeper, “Take care of him”. That is the idea. Is there any christian here who cannot take that simple thought in? Is there not a neighbour of yours to whom you can extend a little care? Even a child can extend a little care to another christian child. You begin to be an elder in that way. The thought advances so that one learns how to take care of the assembly of God. That is the great thought. There is not anything in the whole universe so deserving of care as the assembly of God, not your own family, not your business, not anything in the whole universe is so deserving of care as the assembly of God. But if we are to be caretakers of the assembly there must be a certain qualification, for the apostle says that if a man does not know how to conduct his own house, he is ruled out, he will discredit the service (1 Timothy 3: 5). I am only speaking as Scripture does, but what I have in mind is the care meeting as we call it; those who cannot take care of a single saint such as the Lord indicated in Luke 10, are not much use in the care meeting when brethren are met together. I would seek to convey what is meant by this, that the Lord holds the stars in His right hand (Revelation 2: 1).

^[p. 244] I want everyone here who has any little thought of serving another, or doing any little bit of service to his neighbour, to realise that the Lord is thinking of you, and He will give you to understand that you have all His power behind you, and the more you use that the better He loves you. You are taken notice of in heaven.

What I would speak of now is not simply a question of being alive in the service, but the ecclesiastical position. The ecclesiastical position is more properly presented in the seven golden candlesticks, the Lord is walking in the midst of them with feet as brass. They are under His eyes for judicial dealings, and nothing can escape those eyes. He walks in the midst of them and what power He has! The second and third chapters show how scrutinisingly He walks. “Behold, I cast her into a bed, and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation”, Revelation 2: 22. He has done that. That is the situation in Rome; the Lord has dealt in power. He cast her into a bed, it is a judicial act; and so in other instances, but in every instance He holds those who care for His people. The candlesticks are the great ecclesiastical position in the midst of which Christ walks. There is not a part of it exempt from His scrutiny, but then, there are those, as He says, who care for one another, and who say, I am responsible. So we are responsible as to all this, even as to all the christians in the system of Rome. I am responsible for all of them, I may feel powerless in regard to it, but the Lord says, ‘I am taking notice of that’. As in Ezekiel, there were “the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9: 4), so any brother or sister, feeling bound hand and foot and not able to do anything, can sigh and cry for the abominations, and the Lord says to such, ‘I am with you, you do not need to be there, you cannot change things; the time of ^[p. 245] reformation is past, it cannot be altered, but I have opened a door for you to get out of it’. That is what the Lord has done, and that is for us here. “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins”, Revelation 18: 4. He has made the door open for us so that we are here at this moment in glorious liberty. He has taken notice of those who feel for His people and their interests, and sigh and cry for the abominations. He would say, ‘My right hand is with you, and I am holding you, and am opening a door for you to come out’. If there is anybody held in these systems, I would urge you to hear His voice, “Come out of her”. He knows you, He claims you, and knows where you are, and what you are suffering, and as you move out, He says, ‘All My support is behind you’. That is the position as to the star. The angels of the assemblies represent, as I said before, the responsible side and those who accept the responsibility. The Lord beautifully combines His thought in writing to Thyatira, the most responsible of all the churches, the church that was guilty and that had the responsibility of having tolerated Jezebel. The Lord changes His words and He says, “to you I say, the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I do not cast upon you any other burden”, Revelation 2: 24. That is to say, the Lord changes His words, and addresses the remnant in the midst of the apostasy. How precious it is to be addressed in that character, singled out as overcoming and feeling things! He says, “I do not cast upon you any other burden; but what ye have hold fast till I shall come”. That is the remnant position.

Now in chapter 5 we have a book in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne. It is the book of God’s rights; that is, God holds the title deeds to the earth; it is all His. As the ark went over the Jordan it was the ark of the Lord of all the earth.

^[p. 246] And so the Lord Jesus rejoices in spirit and He says to His Father, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth”, Matthew 11:25. We want to get this great thought into our souls that God the Father is Lord of heaven and earth. There are those who would let Him be in heaven, and say, We do not want Him on earth. They give glory to the God of heaven but the point of this book is that He is the God of the earth. He is worthy; He has got the title deeds and the book is in His right hand, not in a strong box, but in His right hand. He is going to use all His power to assert His rights below and it is all on the ground of redemption; it is all effected by our Lord Jesus Christ, seen here in the midst of the throne as a Lamb slain. God asserts His rights but He says it is all on the ground of redemption. And so the seals are opened, one after the other. God has asserted His rights, but He asserts them in grace, and in the opening of these seals, He is thinking of the saints; the saints are to suffer the least possible in every judicial action.

Chapter 10 shows the Lord Jesus putting His right foot on the sea and His left foot upon the earth, and crying as a lion roars. But now it is not simply a question of the title deeds of the earth, but it is the Lord coming in Himself to take possession. What an operation is here ! Then in verse 5 it says, “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer”. He calls attention to the Creator, and that there is to be no longer delay after a given event. The day of the winding up of everything is fixed on the calendar, and as soon as the hour strikes there is power to effect it. So that the Lord says,

“^[p. 247] in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets”. That is for our encouragement that we may not be discouraged by the constant drive of evil men doing their own will in this world. The Lord is swearing here in confirmation for the assurance of the saints, for the establishment of our faith. He lifts up His right hand, all that He is enters into the oath. It is a fixed matter on the calendar, the finishing up of everything. After a certain event it will occur, so that we are to be quiet and restful, and to put on the helmet of salvation, knowing that our redemption draws nigh.

Then there is the final word that one touches very hesitatingly, and that is the mark of the beast. His requirement is that his mark is to be on the right hand or on the forehead. The mark on the forehead is that you are publicly seen and known to be on his side; and he so regards you whatever your resources may be, this mark evidences that you are on his side and you will be taken on and conscripted personally. So that the point is to see to it that nothing like this mark is on the forehead or on the right hand. The latter means that I hand myself over in all the power that I have to this power. There is no hesitation; no reserve. It is my right hand. That is what the beast means. He says, ‘I want you, and all that you are, I am going to make you a superman, and I want all the power you will have as a superman with all that education’. In the wonderful systems there are to be men with six fingers and six toes, supermen. The beast says, ‘I want you, and I want all the power that you have’. That is the thought of the right hand.

In the next chapter God takes up that challenge. This is the great issue with God, it results in unmitigated punishment (see verses 9, 10). I am speaking of the evil that is ordinary. To get to the root of the ^[p. 248] thing, is to get it in the abstract and that is what is presented here. God says, ‘I take up that challenge. If the beast challenges My creatures in this way, I take it up and I challenge each, and say that anyone who does homage to the beast shall drink of the wine of the fury of God’. We can see how the position calls for suffering, it is either one thing or another. Everyone, young or old, should understand things in their abstract relations, and John’s writings enable us to understand things in an abstract way. The position calls for suffering. It is either suffering now or unmitigated suffering later on. “The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”, Revelation 14: 9 - 12.

The position is so very clear that it is worthy of our closest attention, so that we may know where we are in these difficult days.